Academic Corruption Research Articles

Design of a model to reduce academic corruption in higher education

Design of a model to reduce academic corruption in higher education

Socio-Economic Impact of Subsidy Removal on Academic Staff, Students, And University Administration in Nigeria

This study was carried out on the socio-economic impact of subsidy removal on academic staff, students, and university administration in Nigeria. Secondary data were used in the paper. The data were collected from print and online publications. The study established that subsidy removal in Nigeria has a sociological impact on academic staff, students, and university administration. The study specifically identified increment in school fees and social vices like prostitution, kidnapping, robbery, and academic corruption as the social impacts of subsidy removal on academic staff, students, and university administration in Nigeria. Based on this finding, the study recommended that federal and state governments implement all palliative measures outlined to reduce the impact of subsidy removal, and the Government should increase the funding of universities to enable administrators to administer the universities well. Scholarships should be granted to tertiary institution students, and academic staff salaries should be increased.

"Academic corruption" – compensation, competition and assessment system

For any system, its highest significance lies in how effectively it operates within the institutional framework, how much it contributes to the efficient functioning of the “established” or “operational” institutions within the system, their capabilities (how well they respond quickly and effectively to the existing needs/emerging problems) and the quality of their management and established knowledge or service. Considering the aforementioned factors, our research aims at identifying proposing pathways for improving the efficiency of the system of education, particularly in the highest educational institutions, analyzing the system of evaluation, competitors and providing pathways to address existing challenges/problems. We believe that the efficient functioning of the system of the highest education has great significance for the efficient operation of the three components mentioned above – scholarships, assessment and competitions. The research object is the institutional structure of the state’s highest educational institutions, the existing/active stimuli in the institutions, the motivation system and the normative basis for regulating labor relations. For this purpose, we used “Practice in the Regulation of Academic Personnel in the Normative Base of the Academic Curriculum”- Analysis, Synthesis and Critical Evaluation Methods. The research explores the risks of corruption in the system of education, particularly focusing on the regulation of interactions among academic personnel. It critically assesses the models of scholarships, competitions and evaluations existing in the education system. Identified problems are discussed and pathways for the problem-solving are proposed. Finally, the study provides 10 recommendations for addressing the issue. Keywords: education system, academic curriculum, corruption, academic personnel, freedom of work, labor contracts, effectiveness of education, scholarship system, evaluation system.

Addressing Low-Level Reproduction in Academic Publication: Implications for Integrity and Academic Environment

This paper addresses the issue of low-level reproduction in academic publication, which is considered a form of imperceptible academic corruption. The practice of low-level reproduction creates academic bubbles and undermines the integrity of the academic atmosphere. In response, this paper advocates for the banning of low-level reproduction to uphold the principles of scientific integrity within the scientific community. By doing so, it aims to foster an environment that nurtures critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills among researchers, ultimately benefiting society and the nation as a whole. The paper emphasizes the importance of promoting transparent and original research in academic publishing to maintain the credibility and trustworthiness of scholarly work.

REFORMED METHODS OF SANCTIONS, INVESTIGATION AND PUNISHMENT TO PREVENT ACADEMIC CORRUPTION, ENDING SEXUAL COERCION AND HARASSMENT IN NIGERIAN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS

In our higher institutions, academic corruption is pervasive, and its prevalence has hampered both national progress and educational quality. Thus, the paper examined the issue of academic corruption by using content analysis and secondary sources of information, including internet-based documented materials, among others, with the goal of promoting reforms to the sanctions, investigations, and punishment of academic corruption, which includes collecting money to change students' grades; exchanging grades for sex; extorting money in exchange for typing; paying for grades; writing projects/seminar papers for students and falsification of data/research finding etc. The paper also examined other elements that contribute to academic corruption, such as indiscipline, inadequate oversight of academic staff, leniency in punishing "culprit" lecturers, flawed hiring practices for academic staff, and hiring of incompetent lecturers. The paper suggests that student victims of sexual harassment should be encouraged to speak out with concrete evidence and perpetrators of such acts should be severely suspended and prosecuted in order to end academic corruption or bring it to a barest minimum amidst disturbing cases of sexual coercion and harassment in Nigerian tertiary institutions. It also suggests that Turnitin anti-plagiarism software should be used at all academic levels. The administration of tertiary institutions should safeguard the printing of exam papers, increase the number of invigilators, install CCTV cameras for test monitoring, among other measures.
 Keywords: Academic Corruption, Sexual Harassment, Investigation, Sanctions.

By-Products of Examination Malpractices on Senior High School Students in the Central Region of Ghana

This paper explored students’ opinions on the effects of examination malpractices on Senior High School students in Assin Districts, Central Region. The study employed a descriptive survey design with the quantitative method. The participants were made up of students from the six public Senior High Schools in Assin Districts. Proportional stratified and simple random sampling procedures had been employed to select a sample of 302 student participants which comprised 164 male students and 138 female students. A questionnaire was employed to collect the data for the study. Means, standard deviations and independent t-test statistics were used to analyze the data gathered for the study. The findings revealed that the major effect of examination malpractice on students was academic corruption followed by ineffective study habits among Senior High School students. It was concluded that in schools where a conducive environment and teaching/learning materials are not provided for effective learning, students involve themselves in examination malpractice to raise the academic image of the school. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education should provide conducive teaching and learning environment to ensure effective academic work in schools to minimize examination malpractice. Also, heads of Senior High Schools should strengthen public education on the effects of examination malpractice to minimize the menace.

Unpacking Academic Corruption in Zambia’s Higher Education: Forms, Causes and Mitigation Measures

Globally, Academic corruption is a superfluous issue that is largely jeopardizing the academic integrity of higher learning institutions. This research paper therefore sought to investigate the forms, causes and mitigation measures of academic corruption in a selected higher learning institution in Zambia. This paper employed an embedded mixed method design in which a questionnaire was administered to 400 students and interviews were conducted with 20 lecturers and administrators. Simple random sampling technique was used for students and typical case purposive sampling for lecturers and administrators. The findings do suggest that despite employing various mitigation measures, cases of academic corruption seem to be prevalent. Results showed that there was a higher prevalence of academic corruption among students, in particular, with respect to plagiarism and cheating which were notably cited as the two commonest forms of academic corruption among students. Among lecturers, professional misconduct, biased marking or grading were cited as the commonest forms of academic corruption. The findings further suggest that academic corruption is triggered by various causes such as peer pressure, performance anxiety and many others. As regards the mitigation measures, the research established that there are numerous measures that are employed to curtail academic corruption. Suspension, dismissal and expulsion were prominently cited as the most common measures that are employed to mitigate academic corruption. The study recommends among others the initialization of a policy on mandatory usage of plagiarism detection software, such as Safe Assign, Turnitin and Plagiarism Detect to curb the most common form of academic corruption among students.

Authorship, Co-Production, Plagiarism: Issues of Origin and Provenance in the Korean Studies Community

The long controversy and struggle over Charles Armstrong’s Tyranny of the Weak may have, for the Korean Studies community felt uniquely transgressive and offensive, but the malfeasance and academic corruption of the episode is not by far the only instance of productive difficulty in the recent history of the academic field. This paper not only attempts to think through questions of authenticity and intellectual ownership in Korean Studies’ difficulties with the writer formerly known as Professor Charles Armstrong, but also to explore other moments of complexity, both historical and contemporary, in the discipline.

Combating Academic Corruption and Enhancing Academic Integrity through International Accreditation Standards: The Model of Qatar University

Academic institutions aim at achieving the highest standards of education and learning. Consequently, they prohibit academic corruption such as cheating or plagiarism. This article examines how international accreditation and quality assurance standards embody academic integrity as a main factor in deciding whether an academic institution should be accredited, and what ranking should an academic institution acquire in a competitive contest for educational excellence. Academic integrity is broadly defined to include, in addition to cheating and plagiarism, compliance with standards of human rights, labor rights, corporate social responsibility, ant-corruption measures, environmental protection, social media usage, protection of underage students, anti-radicalization and extremism, avoidance of conflict of interest, faculty professionalism, students codes of conduct and human experimentation. Academic institutions should adopt policies that are designed to address these diverse standards and accommodate diversity and enhance access to education for all without discrimination. Academic institutions should also strictly require the highest standards in teaching and research. This article will discuss the different policies, laws, rules and regulations adopted by Qatar University as a model for incorporating academic integrity, which may be of interest to the international higher education community. This article will ask two main questions; are accrediting institutions asking the right questions to find out whether an academic institution strictly adheres to a policy of academic integrity, and whether policies adopted by academic institutions, Qatar University as a model, are adequate to address various violations of academic integrity.

Students’ Indiscipline in Tertiary Educational Institutions of Sokoto State

The study investigated the effects of students’ indiscipline and factors responsible for its ineffective management in tertiary educational institutions of Sokoto state, Nigeria. The study employed a mixed method approach involving 3270 academic staff and 4344 final year students of all the higher educational institutions of Sokoto State. A Survey which was validated by experts and whose reliability coefficient was established at 0.9, was distributed to a sample of 692 respondents. While interview was conducted with 12 participants bearing the saturation rule. Descriptive statistics (Mean and Standard Deviation) and Coding were used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data of the study respectively. Findings revealed that the effects of indiscipline on students includes: promotion of academic corruption, sexual harassment, poor academic performance as well as examination malpractices. The schools’ strategies for managing the students’ indiscipline, include setting down strategic rules and regulations, communicating the rules to the school-wide communities, as well as apprehending and detaining the culprits. Moreover, it was found that the efforts of the institutions to manage the students’ indiscipline is being affected by factors such as lack of parental involvement, insignificant support of some staff, technology and media, and political interference. The study finally recommends among other things that the institutions should seek the support of the parents, community members, security operatives to ensure the apprehension, detention and suing of the erring students whenever they are found indulging in any of such indiscipline behaviours.

Academic Culture and Talent Cultivation

This study aims at introducing and discussing the concept of ‘academic culture,’ the Chinese concept of ‘talent cultivation’, and the influence of ‘academic culture’ in the process of ‘talent cultivation’in the Chinese context. It uses the analysis of some observation notes and relevant literature that examines the issue of ‘academic culture’. The Chinese ‘talent cultivation’is fascinating and seems useful due to the significant development of the higher education system with the increasing internationalization and the innovation of scholars. However, some challenges such as academic scandals and academic corruption, the falsification and plagiarism of academic achievements, the phenomenon of money-worshipping, the vulgar pragmatism, the utilitarianism, the academic creation of falsehood, the culture of guanxi, the lack of talent competition, and the lack of competition with consciousness remain actual. It appears that the cultivation of creative talent and innovative research involves the enhancement of the whole academic organization and environment.

Why Him Not ME? Inclusive/Exclusive Talent Identification in Academic Public Context

ABSTRACT We investigated the relevance of introducing talent identification/classifications among Egyptian public business schools, as perceived by academics, and the expected outcomes of such proposed classification system. We employed thematic analysis of data collected from interviews with 49 academics from three large business schools. Our findings revealed the following themes: no clear systems for talent management; being talent means going the extra mile in research; talent identification/classification system is irrelevant due to: academic corruption; age and religious discrimination; the unique nature of higher education work; and the fears of enforcing clashes, inequality and exclusion. We confirmed that any attempt to constitute talent classifications in the Egyptian higher education does not appear to be a prioritized need for the sector. Nevertheless, we did assert the need to manage motivational, structural, consequential and social responsibility boundaries before the need for constituting any system for talent identification and classifications.

The effect of lean culture on the reduction of academic corruption by the mediating role of positive organizational politics in higher education

Familiarity with the strategies of Academic Corruption (AC) strengthens meritocracy values, increases participation, and education quality calls for the proper use of policies and cultural values ​​by the higher education system. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of lean culture (LC) on reducing AC with the mediation of positive organizational politics (POP). Statistical population of this research included faculty members of University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran. The method of this study was correlational, and it was conducted on faculty members of University of Sistan and Baluchestan with a sample of 185 people based on stratified random sampling method. The research tools included three questionnaires of lean culture questionnaire adapted from Maciąg model (Maciąg, 2019b), positive organizational policy questionnaire adapted from Kacmar and Carlson (1997); Nye and Witt (1993), &Sen et al. (2018) models and the researcher-made questionnaire of reduction of academic corruption adapted from Tierney and Sabharwal (2017) model. According to the findings, confirmatory validity, composite reliability, and Cranbach's alpha were reported to be appropriate in all the three tools. The analysis method was using Partial Least Squares (SmartPLS). The results showed that LC directly and indirectly was effective in reducing AC through POP. Moreover, LC had a direct effect on POP and POP had a direct effect on AC reduction. It could be stated that lean values besides positive organizational policy could play a constructive role in reducing AC; and reducing AC is somehow connected to cultural and political factors of higher education.

Aksara: Interactive Digital Pocket Books as an Effort to Increase Politeness in Language

Research and development of AKSARA: interactive digital pocketbooks, focusing on the development of a mobile application based on ethics of politeness and academic corruption, introduced as a form of early learning for Brawijaya University students. This research method was a mixed-method type. The development of digital pocketbooks was using a Recursive, Reflective, Design and Development model or can be abbreviated as R2D2. In the development of digital pocketbooks, the focus was on the three development focuses of R2D2, namely (1) Focus on determination; (2) Focus on developing product design, as well as its trials, and; (3) Focus on dissemination in accordance with the context of the development’s environment and needs. The results from the research and development process was a pocketbook app using mobile platform, which makes the product more ubiquitous. Applying the concept of gamification, this application has several interesting functions that stimulate user interaction. AKSARA provides ethics of politeness and academic corruption materials which are divided into systematic chapters and subchapters, each of them contains a quiz to measure user's understanding of the material. The correctness of answers and speed in answering the question determined the points received by users which can decide the user’s level and its ranking in the leaderboard. Users can also share their profiles in social media such as Instagram and Facebook.Â

Nigerian Universities and their Sustainability: Challenges and Way Forward

This paper highlights the concept, characteristics, and the importance of University education in the development and production of manpower for the socio-political and economic advancement of the nation. The paper also discusses the various challenges confronting the University education in Nigeria which range from lack of sound strategic plan, poor leadership, ineffective teaching and learning, poor researching activities, inadequate infrastructure facilities, poor funding, unfavorable internal and international outlook or reputation (staff, students, and research), academic corruption and fraud, low international ranking and lack of modern laboratories. The paper, therefore, recommended that government should increase the funding of the Universities education to enable the administrators of Universities in Nigeria to provide necessary infrastructural facilities needed by the Universities, more funds should also be allocated to the research program of the Universities to enable them to carry out researches while academic corruption and fraud should be fought to the grass root by the enactment of the signing of riot act of academic ethics.

ICT and administrative effectiveness of University in Nigeria: A connect between leadership and knowledge

The increasing demand for University education and continuous creation of new faculties to meet admission demand without corresponding increase in infrastructural and human resources to manage University affair bring complexity to the system. In addition, various dimensions of academic corruption are common in tertiary institutions especially in developing countries where Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is not sufficiently and effectively deployed to check mate behavioral excesses of staff and students. This paper therefore presented how ICT connects University leadership and academics (knowledge) for administrative effectiveness of Nigerian University based on secondary data material collected online from related articles, educational forum and data directly gathered from education administrators in Tertiary institution and students’ experiences about education administration. It presents various Education ICT tools used in Information administration and learning. Some common corrupt practises that undermine University administration are highlighted and the combat strategy using a simple Digital Nervous System (DNS) was proposed to showcase a simple but innovative ICT- enabled interaction among the management, the students and the staff for the efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of administration in Nigerian Tertiary Education. This work will serve as an excellent guide to stakeholders, and University administrators towards improved administrative performance. It will foster the foundation for establishing a viable and sustainable ICT inspired learning.Key Words: Administration, Corruption, Digital Nervous System (DNS), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), University

Battling Academic Corruption in Higher Education: Does External Quality Assurance (EQA) Offer a Ray of Hope?

The post-1980s changes in the global higher education landscape have triggered a burgeoning of incidents of academic corruption in higher education institutions. Since 2000, the discourse on how to combat academic corruption has gained traction in higher education and quality assurance is advanced as one of the strategies for fighting corruption in higher education. In 2016, UNESCO (and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation) issued a “wakeup call” to quality assurance systems to take up a leading role in the battle against academic corruption. However, a dearth of empirical and conceptual studies on how the quality assurance systems, in general, and external quality assurance systems, in particular, can take up a leading role in the crusade against academic corruption exists. This conceptual paper, using the crime-punishment model as an analytical lens, explores how the national quality assurance agencies (and systems) can exercise the leadership role in combating academic corruption. The paper advances the setting of academic integrity standards, institutional and programme accreditation, accreditation of academic journals, sharing information and promoting whistleblowing, monitoring of institutions, applying sanctions, and ranking of higher education institutions on the basis of integrity indicators as options that are available to quality assurance agencies in the exercise of their leadership role in combating academic corruption. These approaches are hypothesised to create both incentives and disincentives for the institutions and staff in connection with engaging in academic corruption. Nevertheless, the paper takes cognisance of the fact that external quality assurance is necessary but not sufficient in combating corruption at the level of the academy.

Academic Honesty, Linguistic Dishonesty: Analyzing the Readability and Translation of Academic Integrity and Honesty Policies at U.S. Postsecondary Institutions

A large body of research has indicated international students in the United States (U.S.) and abroad experience difficulties understanding what academic integrity is and how to avoid academic misconduct (Bista To Improve The Academy, 30(1), 159–172 2011; Brown & Howell, 2001; Gullifer and Tyson Studies in Higher Education, 39(7), 1202-1218 2014). While most studies focus on academic misconduct and academic corruption in research ethics (Macfarlane et al. Studies in Higher Education, 39(2), 339-358 2014), this study analyzes the length, English-language readability, and translation of academic integrity policies of 453 four-year U.S. institutions of higher education. Findings indicate average academic integrity policies are over 2000 words long, are written above the 16th-grade reading level, and are very rarely translated into a language other than English (0.06% of the sample). In addition, no institutions published their academic integrity policies in full on their institutional international student website, possibly rendering the policy difficult to locate on the institution’s website for international students. Implications for research, policy, and practice are addressed.

Combating Academic Corruption: Quality Assurance and Accreditation

The role of quality assurance and accrediting bodies in advancing academic integrity has long been clear. Increasingly, however, these bodies are also expected to focus on the challenging issue of academic corruption – practices such as plagiarism, fraudulent credentials, bribery – and how to end them. This article explores additional tools that quality assurance and accreditation may need to combat corruption, beyond advancing academic integrity.

Combating Academic Corruption: Quality Assurance and Accreditation

The role of quality assurance and accrediting bodies in advancing academic integrity has long been clear. Increasingly, however, these bodies are also expected to focus on the challenging issue of academic corruption – practices such as plagiarism, fraudulent credentials, bribery – and how to end them. This article explores additional tools that quality assurance and accreditation may need to combat corruption, beyond advancing academic integrity.